Dear friends and colleagues, please find below a reminder of a conference that we're organizing in Budapest for June next year. Please note that community and alternative media are one of the core themes of the conference, so there should be a number of sessions that deal with 'our' media. We hope to bring together a number of good people, particularly from Central/Eastern Europe, who are working with 'our' media, both practically and academically. So, if you are from this region, it would be great to meet you at this conference, and we could use it for a regional OURMedia gathering. But also if you are from other parts of the world, it should be an interesting event, as we want to look at the transformations in Central/Eastern Europe in the context of developments taking place in other parts of the world (Latin America, Middle East, etc). If there are people who want to help us organizing an OURMedia side-event or pre-conference, please get in touch. Best, Arne BEYOND EAST AND WEST TWO DECADES OF MEDIA TRANSFORMATION AFTER THE FALL OF COMMUNISM 25-27 June 2009 Central European University, Budapest An International Conference, organized by the Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) at Central European University (CEU) and the COST A30 Action "East of West: Setting a New Central Eastern European Media Research Agenda", in cooperation with the International Communication Association (ICA). Deadline for abstracts and panel proposals: 15 November 2008 Please submit abstracts to: [log in to unmask] Conference website: www.beyondeastandwest.net Since 1989, a new media landscape has emerged in Central and Eastern Europe, with new ownership patterns, forms of media organization, journalistic practices, relationships between politics and the media, regulation processes and modalities of media use. A new system has been established, predominantly designed according to Western models and with heavy influence by Western players. Twenty years later, it is time to re-examine these changes. What went right, what went wrong, and what can we learn from this? Were Western media models and concepts appropriate for the post-1989 social, political, economic and cultural realities of Central/Eastern Europe? What are the future trajectories of media development in the region? And how do they compare to those in other regions undergoing systemic transformation – from Latin America to China and the Middle East? The conference "Beyond East and West" will trace post-1989 development and look towards the future. To build research for communication in transition, conference participants will explore the necessary building-blocks for a research agenda. Speakers include Miklos Haraszti, Slavko Splichal, Karol Jakubowicz, Colin Sparks, Monroe Price, Miklos Sukosd, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Nick Jankowski, Beata Klimkiewicz, Peter Molnar, Peter Gross, John Downey, Inka Salovaara-Moring, Andrew Calabrese. Core conference themes: -> Central Eastern European Media Systems 20 Years On -> Media Policy and Democratic Legitimacy -> New Media Developments -> Popular Culture: Media Uses, Media Literacy, Socialism(s) and Nostalgia -> Political Communication between Commercialization and Political Influence -> Samizdat, Alternative and Community Media -> Global Communications, Development and Transition -> Reviewing International Media Assistance Programs For more information on speakers, themes and program go to _http://www.beyondeastandwest.net/_ Contact: Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) Central European University (CEU) Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>_ Website: _http://cmcs.ceu.hu <http://cmcs.ceu.hu/>_ Phone: +36 1 237 3000 ext 2607 Postal address: Nador u 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary COST A30 "East of West": _http://www.costa30.eu/_ International Communication Association: _http://www.icahdq.org/_ Conference website: _http://www.beyondeastandwest.net/_